


Why He Fights

by sanctum_c



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Community: fan_flashworks, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-11
Updated: 2013-08-11
Packaged: 2017-12-23 03:19:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/921382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barret reminds himself of just what is at stake in Avalanche's struggle against Shinra.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Why He Fights

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "Bruise"

Once a week Barret set off into Sector Seven alone, leaving Tifa to mind Marlene, and the rest of Avalanche to their downtime between missions. He knew there was a running bet between the trio of Jessie, Biggs and Wedge over precisely what he was doing; Biggs was certain that Barret had a lover hidden somewhere in one of the other sectors while Wedge was convinced there was more of a structure to Avalanche and that the former miner was receiving orders from a higher up. Jessie refuted both theories and came oddly the closest to the truth; she speculated that Barret needed to remind himself what they were fighting for.

Barret's path always took him right to the outer wall of Midgar and, after pressing a few gil into the hand of the the guard on duty, out into the wasteland beyond. He never ventured much beyond the gate, but still paid careful attention to the outside world. He would always wonder if he should have taken the extra time to travel to one of the neighbouring sectors for this pilgrimage. The view from Sector Seven was rapidly blocked by a steep, rising bluff that almost reached to the height of the upper plate; an artificial hill formed from the discarded skin of the Planet as Shinra's leech-like city was constructed.

The view from this location sufficed for Barret's purposes. He suspected that if he could see further the view would be all the more depressing. He surveyed the visible ground. The traces of grass that had once eked out a pitiful existence here in the shadow of the overhanging plate were gone. He used to remind himself of what was at stake while still within Sector Seven; the dead ground within the city walls was a potent reminder of just what they sought to stop. It was not until a chance encounter with a new denizen of Midgar that he realised just how bad it was getting out here. 

Barret remembered when he and Marlene had first arrived at the city, his daughter utterly exhausted from the long trek from Kalm. He remembered how the grass thinned as they approached the city, how it turned to dry dust at the very edge of the wall. He remember how the sweltering heat of Midgar had enveloped them and blocked the sun from their skies as they passed underneath the plates.

It had not been until that newcomer described the long hours wandering through a wasteland that Barret became truly worried and had needed to see for himself. Horrifyingly the related tale was true; where before life had seemed to shy away from touching the Mako city, now a vast circular sea of dead ground insulated Midgar from the rest of the Planet. Shinra's capital now squatted in a growing bruise on the skin of their world. Barret suspected all the other Mako-fuelled settlements were likewise tainting the ground. At first sight had staggered him; he had never considered that the rate of decay would be appreciable and observable like this. The ring of death that Midgar produced was growing and if not checked would go on spreading.

Like rippling waves in a pool of water, those wastelands around the cities would keep growing and eventually overlap. And then what would be left to live on? This was why Avalanche resisted Shinra. This was why they risked their lives and fought the corrupt company. They had to heal this bruise before it became a scar, before it became untreatable and irreversible. Barret clung to the hope that the injury could still be healed if they acted quickly enough. With time and a halt to Mako extraction, he fervently believed that life could return to both the land surrounding the city and the barren streets within.

He'd seen enough for today, and walked with fresh determination back into the city of death. Tonight was a major operation for them. Tonight they cast a first decisive blow. Tonight they bombed Mako Reactor One.


End file.
